Kazoo Organ

The idea is simple: an organ with a rank (or more) of kazoo pipes. This could be in addition to a full complement of other voices, providing an interesting solo voice, or as an independant instrument.

Of course, any kazoo player worth his salt will tell you that you can't get a sound out of a kazoo by just blowing through it. This is because a kazoo operates by sympathetic vibrations of a wax paper resonator with your voice, which gives it its characteristic quality. The organ pipe could therefore not consist merely of a kazoo, but would have to have an initial resonator. (In a sense this is similar to the function the lips of a flute pipe perform -- they provide the initial vibrations in the air which are supported harmonically by the length of the pipe.) This resonator might be a reed or flute, but it may be possible to have a resonator more similar to the human larynx, consisting of flexible mebranes.

Because of the way a kazoo produces its sound, it might not be necessary for the pipes' lengths to correspond exactly to their intended fundamental harmonic, which is usually necessary in organ pipes since the sound is produced by the vibrations in the air column. Clearly some experimentation will be required to achieve the desired results. It would be possible to have a whole range of effects, mimicing the versitility of the kazoo.

If there is a lingering doubt in your mind as to the merit of such an instrument, just think of what works such great composers as J. S. Bach might have been inspired to create, had their organs a kazoo stop.